August MOTM: Prehistoric Dragon - concept sketch + design commentary // sfw?

thanks again to toreadorkable for suggesting "something kind of dinosaur-ish, with some fun mixing scales and feathers." i turned this idea into "prehistoric dragon," because "prehistoric" covers the feathered dinosaur aspect and opened up the door for drawing inspiration from other ancient creatures too.

i'll admit that i know very little about dinosaurs -- unlike many other history nerds, i never had a paleontology phase. nor do i keep up with the ongoing discussion about how ancient life should be reconstructed, so i've barely even glanced at the tip of that iceberg. that's partly why i chose to make this monster a dragon inspired by dinosaurs, rather than trying to design a monstrous dinosaur, if you know what i mean? this would allow me more freedom to make purely aesthetic-oriented design choices, rather than even attempting a more "scientific" approach. i also knew i would have more fun mixing and matching features from different creatures (and eras!), rather than basing this monster on any particular dinosaur species. last but not least, who doesn't love a dragon?

naturally, i still wanted to see how people tend to reconstruct feathered dinosaurs, so i headed to google and looked through a multitude of image search results. 

my monster would have a mixture of scales and fluff, so i needed to decide where on his body to place the feathering. i'm familiar with some of the famous fossils that show preserved feather imprints, so i wasn't surprised to see reconstructions of wing-like fore legs (though i couldn't always tell whether or not they were supposed to be used for actual flight). i could have translated this feature into giving my monster wings instead of arms, like an anthropomorphised wyvern. but the thing is, i prefer to combine a regular pair of arms with an extra pair of wings -- no shade against wyvern-type anatomy, it's just my personal preference. and i could still add decorative "sleeves" of feathering to my dragon's arms, giving them an unusual and interesting silhouette. as for the wings, i combined the primaries and secondaries of bird wings with a scaly membrane shaped like a classic pterodactyl wing, essentially replacing the covert feathers.

speaking of interesting silhouettes, some reconstructions of dinosaurs also had fluffy hind legs, and adding feathers to my monster's legs would alter their outline in a cool way. i originally intended to give him more thicc and intimidating feet, like a t-rex or velociraptor -- but the "feather pants" made me think of eagles, owls, and other fluffy birds, so before i knew it i had given him little chicken toes.

and then there was the tail. some fossils and reconstructions have long feathered tails, but somewhere around this point in the process i remembered i wanted to draw inspiration from other prehistoric animals too -- not just dinosaurs. the first creatures i thought of were the trilobites and other fossils you can see in so many stone staircases. once i thought of a trilobite-inspired tail, i couldn't let go of the idea (it wouldn't be unlike nehaneru's chunky tail, which i've always loved drawing). the segmented shapes of trilobite exoskeletons also made me think of plate-like scaling, especially along my monster's neck, back, shoulders, and thighs. in contrast, his throat, chest, and belly could be covered in feathers.

all of these ideas first came together in the quadrupedal sketch seen above (i sometimes find it easier to draw the four-legged version of a design first, and then anthropomorphise it into a humanoid/biped). but i struggled with the design of his head, so you can also see some ideas of the concepts i went through. i thought of giving him a curved crest like a parasaurolophus, or a flaring bony frill like a triceratops, or otherwise drawing inspiration from an iconic dinosaur. or maybe i should give him forehead horns based on the shape of a trilobite's triangular cephalon (aka head section)? i was able to make up my mind once i came across some intriguing trilobite fossils with long, spiny outgrowths , such as this one. my dragon's crest is based on that spiny silhouette -- and the larger scales on his forehead is vaguely inspired by isopods!

now i could finally draw the two-legged version, and in doing so refined many of the details and shapes (and removed the out-of-place-looking pair of long tail feathers). the tail was admittedly starting to look more like a millipede than a trilobite, but i didn't mind.

next up i needed to decide on the colour scheme. there's some fossilised dinosaur feathers with preserved pigments, and the reconstructed palettes look pretty earthy and neutral, sometimes with pops of colour, iridescence, or a cool pattern. but for some reason i craved more vibrant hues, so i opted to go ham. i looked at my other MOTM paintings of 2021 so far, and noticed that i hadn't used much blue or purple lately. that was a good starting point, especially if combined with a beautifully contrasting red or orange hue. i started figuring out where on his body to put which colour, mostly drawing inspiration from vibrant birds -- though tropical fish and brightly coloured snakes also come to mind.

after a while, i arrived at the first colour sketch above. i liked it well enough, but it somehow felt lacking, so i started experimenting with different layer effects. in the end, adding a bright yellow layer set to "overlay" did the trick. it completely transformed the colours, creating more contrast between the hues and drawing out some really pretty undertones. so if you're ever dissatisfied with a palette, mess around with layer effects -- it can really work wonders.

the final look is very colourful and there's a bunch of different shapes and textures, but most of them appear on at least two places of his body and this consistency makes his design look coherent. i'm extremely pleased, and i already low key want to draw him again.

that said, i have to call myself out. if i saw this monster for the first time and had to guess the design prompt, i would have probably said "tropical dragon" or "dragon-of-paradise." i definitely nailed mixing scales and feathers, as per toreadorkable's original suggestion, but ... i don't know if he looks particularly prehistoric. of course, we can't know that there weren't ancient beings that looked like this, and i hope the discussion above sheds light on my thought process. but in hindsight i could have gotten the point across more clearly. it might have served me well to draw his head more like a well-known dinosaur, after all, or to choose a more earthy colour scheme. he could have had horns shaped like fossils, or distinct features borrowed from other extinct creatures, like the saberteeth of a smilodon.  i guess i got carried away with the neat colours and the trilobites, lol.

but i'm too happy with the design to feel guilty about potentially having missed the mark a bit, and i hope you enjoy him too! >:)

// art + character © me.